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Mark Geragos

Mark Geragos, defense attorney, “Larry King Live” (June 26, 2009) (archived)

LARRY KING: We're now joined by Mark Geragos, the former defense attorney for Michael Jackson, who represented him during that early stages of that controversial child molestation case. How are you reacting to all of this, Mark?

MARK GERAGOS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think like anybody else. Everybody who knows Michael is shocked. There's dismay. I guess the good part of it is that finally people are starting to recognize, I think, and focusing on all his genius, as opposed to all the supposed peccadilloes.

KING: As a client, we discussed this; in the middle of the trial he was dancing on SUVs. Was that troublesome?

GERAGOS: I'll never forget that day. I remember Ben Brafman was on one side of me and Pat Harris was on the other. Whatever anybody says about Michael, it takes a heck of an athlete to make that jump from the ground up to the top of the SUV. And I was using a few choice words about getting him back down.

But he knew what he was doing, and after that I ran into the judge. He had a sense of humor about it. It was not --

KING: You were bugged and he was bugged when he was secretly taped on that plane?

GERAGOS: We were more than bugged. I probably -- professionally, I don't think I've been angrier than sitting on that plane with somebody. I don't care who you are. You're going to surrender. You have the whole world focused on you. To have some low life install a recording device when you're with your lawyer, going to turn yourself in on something that is completely unfounded, to listen to what you're talking to your lawyer about, and then trying to market it, and sell it for millions of dollars, I thought was unconscionable.

We did get the last laugh on that, though.

...KING: What was he like as a client?

GERAGOS: He was a good client, actually. I didn't have any problem with him at all. We represented him for about 18 months. The last, I don't know, four months I did it in conjunction with Ben. And he was worried, obviously. The first 12 or 13 months before anything was filed, he was, as hands off as one could be.

KING: But he was a good client.

GERAGOS: Absolutely never had any problems.